Monday, September 30, 2013

Hello again everyone, and welcome back to the blog. Barbara here with some fun cards to share. This month, we are showcasing the Classified collection, a beautiful array of black and white embossed card stock. Best of all, it is on sale 20% off. No coupons necessary! In addition, we are pairing up with Sin City Stamps this month. They have the most fabulous stamps to offer, with new designs coming out regularly.

Well, you all have probably heard that wonderful saying that "great minds think alike". I think that saying is appropriate this week, since both my fellow DT member, Ro Donner, and guest designer Bev Code, and I were thinking exactly the same thing when we started our projects. None of us were aware what the other was doing. I guess we all decided it was a good time to make some tri-shutter cards. You can see Ro's post by clicking here, and Bev Code's post by clicking here.

I am working on a Halloween mini album, and I had lots of small pieces that I absolutely refuse to throw away. These cards are really good for using up all of your beautiful paper scraps. I was going to postpone mine, but then I thought, why do that when I can show you how different they can look. And different they are.

Cut glitter crackle card stock pieces, and the reverse (green) side of Halloween Glitter Stripe 3/16" smaller than the rectangular areas, and print papers from the Classified Collection another 3/16" smaller than the solid cardstock, arranging the different prints in a pleasing manner within each rectangle. Here is how the first layer looks.

I sprayed each of my print pieces with various Halloween colors using Dylusions ink sprays. If your color is too dark, you can easily lighten it with the White Linen spray. I learned this little gem of a tip from my blogger friend, LeslieRahye. Then you can add other colors over that and they will show.

Here is how it looks after adding the second layer.

Now, it's beginning to look a lot like Halloween. Bwaaaahaaaaaahaaaa!

I die cut two smaller flourishes from chipboard, painted each with Sea Kelp and Adobe Glimmer Glazes, then added a layer of Rock Candy crackle paint. After dried, I adhered to each side panel of the card.

Color the rubber stamp image of the winged skeleton with Distress Markers (Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Black Soot) and stamp onto a piece of clear shrink plastic. When dry, use circle die to cut out around the image.

You can either use your heat gun or a toaster oven to shrink the plastic. Follow directions on the package, and as always, use caution and be very careful. The shrinking is done when the piece flattens back out and, if needed, you can place a wooden stamp block on top to keep it flat while it cools.

As you can see, it did not shrink in to a perfect circle, but hey, it's Halloween. What's perfect on All Hallow's Eve? And, I kind of like the way he has a slight tilt in his stance. Here, you can see the size difference, and now my large image fits on top of my rosette that I'm about to show you. That's the advantage of using shrink plastic.

Form rosette and adhere to a large glue dot. Ink edges with Seedless Preserves.

Cover the back of the shrink plastic pieces with Gold Mixative, then drop Butterscotch and Lettuce alcohol inks on top of that. You will get this lovely look behind the numerals.

For the winged skeleton image, adhere the piece to a piece of white card stock with Glossy Accents, and cut out. This will be adhered to the center of your rosette to keep it together.

Adhere to white card stock with Glossy Accents, trim off excess

Add strips of washi tape to the four corner pieces, and adhere diamond dew drops within the design.

Now, you could add more embellishments and stamped images to this card, but the paper is so pretty, I thought it stands out on its own. Besides, I did not want to go too crazy, and sometimes, you just have to know when to stop.

I hope you enjoyed my version of a tri-shutter card today, and that Ro, Bev, and I have inspired you to try your hand at making one of these fun style cards. They really are not hard to make, and you get to use your scraps instead of throwing them away.

I have to tell you that all the the papers from The Robin's Nest are of the highest quality. They stood up to repeated misting and heating with my heat tool. Even the glitter and resin areas did not melt or flake off. So, if ever you wanted to get some of their beautiful Classified collection papers, now is the time, while they are on sale. They honestly are worth every penney! And thanks so much to our sponsor this month, Sin City Stamps. I hope you will stop by their online shop and see all of their wonderful stamps on offer.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative week!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Hey there, everyone. I want to thank everyone for stopping by my blog and playing along in LeslieRahye's Very Fall Steampunk Blog Hop this past weekend. I am also very happy that I have a few new followers, as well. But now, I want to announce who my blog candy winner is.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Hello Creative Paperclay® fans, and welcome back to the blog. Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox, signifying the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall. I am really looking forward to Fall, with that crispness in the air and cooler temperatures. How about you?

The more I work with Creative Paperclay®, the more fun things I discover, from how to paint it, to how to mold it. It never occurred to me, until recently, that the thinner I roll out the clay, the more flexible it is when dry. I also discovered that it is quite strong and does not break or crack, like you might think. This is a real asset when you want a piece of clay that is paper thin and will wrap around your project, or just be flexible for whatever purpose you choose.

So, don't think you have to roll out your clay thick, like 1/4" thick or so, unless you need it to be. Think of it as making your own paper out of clay. It is, after all, paper in clay form. See my previous post where I made honeycomb so thin, the holes remained intact. Or how about the "sheet" of music I made to add to any project, pun absolutely intended.

I also discovered that, since I was rolling the Paperclay® out so thinly, it sometimes wanted to stick to my roller. The old light bulb went off and gave me the bright idea to place my Paperclay® between two sheets of waxy paper to keep it from sticking. It worked fabulously. These were actually the release paper from my Xyron. Don't throw them away. They work for all sorts of things.

You can roll it out thinly on a texture sheet, a rubber stamp, or even a piece of lace or burlap fabric, to get a ton of various textures. You can even mold items without filling the mold to get thinner pieces, if you want it to be flexible. You are always only limited by your imagination. So, unless you need something stable and strong, then have some fun making "sheets" of Paperclay®.

REMINDER ALERT

Don't forget that we are having a Halloween blog link up on 5 October, combined with a design team call. What better way to showcase your work and share it with the world!!! And you never know, you could win one of the prize giveaways. So go ahead, give it a try. Create something with Creative Paperclay® products and link up to the blog to enter to win! And if you would like to try out for the design team, check out the information here.

I am so glad you stopped by today, and I hope you enjoyed my tips. Please check out the Creative Paperclay® online store, and visit the blog for more inspiration. If you have any questions about the link up, please feel free to ask me.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Hey there, steampunk fans! So glad you stopped by, because today we are going to combine steampunk with a bit of Fall, and I know you are going to enjoy all the fun and inspiration from the participants. Our hostess, LeslieRahye is where you can begin and end the hop.

There will be prizes given away as well. All you need to do is visit each blog and leave some love in the form of a comment. And we all would love for you to follow our blogs, as well, but it is not necessary to win. A complete list of the participants is shown below. I also have some blog candy, but you will have to scroll down to see what it is.

So, let's get started. I will try to keep this shorter than usual because I know you want to hop through to everyone's blogs.

Today I want to share my Autumn Steam Hot House project. I started out with a blank CD and an empty Altoid tin. I didn't know exactly where I was going with this, but as I worked on it, I started seeing the beginnings of a steamy hot house for my fall foliage. I even added a relief valve in case the pressure builds up.

I covered a blank CD, front and back, with Draftsman paper. After sanding the edges, I distressed the front with Scattered Straw, and the back with Peeled Paint distress ink.

Next, you want to get the box covered and ready to become the base stand for the CD. After adding Xyron adhesive to the Architect scrap, emboss with Gears embossing folder.

Ink high spots with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink, glue to top of lid and trim excess.

The metal gets very hot. USE CAUTION WHEN HEATING THE METAL.I used these gripper clips from the hardware store to hold the lid while I heated the metal.

Before embossing the bottom sides, trim and insert a piece of Architect paper into the bottom. Ink sides with Encore Gold ink and heat emboss with Rust Tapestry, allowing the embossing powder to cover the inside sides as well. Ink and heat emboss the sides of the lid with Rust Tapestry, as well. USE CAUTION WHEN HEATING THE METAL. Use tweezers or these gripper clips to hold the tin while heat embossing it.

Here is what the tin looks like at this point.

To make the tin stand up and hold the CD in place, add one layer of foam tape to the inside bottom, and a couple of strips, three layers deep, to the inside of the lid. Insert the CD into the tin and press against the sides and top to make good contact with the foam tape.

Here is what it looks like on the front.

Here is the back side.

Decorate with whatever embellishments you have.

I did remove the adhesive backing from the chipboard stickers and brushed baby powder on the back to remove the stickiness. Since the stickers extended beyond my piece, I wanted to place my adhesive where it would do the most good. I also edged them with the brown pen.

The three night lights were colored with a blend of caramel and slate alcohol inks, with a bit of blending solution. I wanted a more amber look for the autumn colors.

I also did the same to the Prima clock. It was white, and very stark against the rest of the colors.

I embossed metal foil with the gear embossing folder, inked with Alcohol inks, punched and die cut leaf shapes, and formed to fit into the inside of the box. I love how I can manipulate the metal shapes. Added Prima flowers between the leaves.

Here is a picture looking down into the box. You can see how the bulbs were added with these huge wire beads as holders.

If you leave me a comment and like my facebook page, you can be entered to win my blog candy. Here is what you could win. I would really love for you to follow me, too, but it is not necessary to win. I will announce my winner right here and on my facebook page on Thursday, 26 September. So be sure to check back then.

I hope you enjoyed my Autumn steampunk hot house project today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and please be sure to visit each of the blog participants listed below and leave each one of us some love (a comment). Then return to LeslieRahye's blog and let her know you entered to win.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the blog. Barbara here with some more stamping fun. Well, another month is almost over, and Fall is upon us, although the 90˚ temperatures here would not give any indication of that happening. But, happen it will. In the meantime, I still have these beautiful colors in my mind's eye, and I could not be more pleased with how this sweet card turned out.

I stamped these onto a scrap of cloudy vellum, cut them out, and then added a spritz of Dragonfly mist. This gave that pretty blue color between the gold embossing. And because I stamped onto vellum, the color shows off beautifully when light passes through the wings. I don't think it will show up in the photos, but it really is a pretty effect for such tiny images.

Instead of trying to fussy cut antennae on a butterfly, I prefer to add a bit of fine gauge wire to the back of my butterflies to represent their antennae. I decided to do this for the side ways butterfly, but chose a spinner for the body on the full one. I really like that look. I usually like to use pen nibs, but this butterfly is on the small, delicate side, so I thought the spinner looked more like the right size for this sweet little butterfly. I also added a tiny metal accent in blue over the hole where the brad would have otherwise gone.

Next, I used the Dream frame from Gina's Designs, inked it with Gold Encore metallic ink, and embossed with Verdigris embossing powder. Because I used the gold ink underneath the EP, it came to the surface and gave this beautiful gold patina on the chipboard. I really love how that turned out.

Here is another look at the finished card.

Once again, I really love the feminine look of this card, with the vintage feel of the lacy die cut, and delicacy of the sweet little butterflies. I especially love how the stamped background turned out for this particular card, but can you see the possibilities? No matter how many times you follow these steps to make it, it will never look the same. And just imagine the color possibilites! Endless!!

I hope I have inspired you to try some background stamps with your color mists and see what beautiful "prints" you, too, can create. In addition to Terri Sproul, we have a couple of new stamp designers, Pam Bray and Peg Rounds, who are coming up with some beautiful images for us to play with. So check out the Sin City Stamps online store for the latest stamp releases. And while you are there, check out the Sin City Stamps blog to see how the DT is using these stamps as they are released.

Oh, and don't forget to mark your calendars for our Fall/Halloween Blog Hop on the 12th of October. There will be fun, inspiration, and giveaways. I hope you will join us then.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and as always, have a wonderful weekend, and make some time for stamping.